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"The main objective is to strengthen Pakistan cricket" : Ehsan Mani

The PCB Chairman speaking to the press today

"First of all I would like to apologize for the late start of this press conference but we have some new board members including myself so we had a few questions to ask about the current situation [of PCB] and that took a little long"

"I am happy that you [press] are sitting here patiently, and I hope that the PCB wallas have atleast given you a cup of tea"

"Our first priority is to strengthen our domestic cricket. Our players come from domestic cricket so we need to work on grassroots cricket. We need to start work on school, club and district cricket"

"The biggest contributors to Pakistan cricket are our departments. Whatever steps we take forward, we will involve the departments in them. They are the biggest and major employers for players in Pakistan"

"Our patron [PM] had openly spoken about an Australian style model to be adopted by us, but in my opinion we will need to invent a Pakistani version due to the fact that our circumstances are different from those of other countries"

"The principle of this [model] is that there are less first-class teams but they are very strong teams so that they act as good backups for the 16-18 players who are part of the current Pakistan teams; the system will produce these players, Inshallah"

"This wont happen overnight and there will be consultations on this. The consultations will be with all stakeholders which will consist of former cricketers, departments, associations and districts"

"To do this, we are forming a management taskforce which will have 2 Board members who will guide this taskforce and also identify the issues at hand. We will then take it to other stakeholders for advice and consultation"

"The main objective is to strengthen Pakistan Cricket"

"Our stadiums are in bad shape and I do not believe its the work of the Cricket Board to take care of stadiums. We need to empower the regions to look after the state of cricket in their regions"

"Wherever in the world there is good governance in the boards, the Cricket is also good where professional teams are run on professional basis"

"In this way, the importance of Chairmen and Board members is reduced and the importance of the game rises"

"My second objective is to have another look at the structure of the PCB; Over the years, the PCB has become a big organization in terms of employees which number around 900"

"I suspect that there is no other board which is so big in terms of manpower"

Pakistan's newly elected cricket chairman says he will continue to push his country's case at the ICC dispute committee over India pulling out of two bilateral series.

“Their (Indian) policy has been overall contradicting, because they are always ready to play in multinational tournaments like Asia Cup and World Cup but pull out on bilateral arrangements,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ehsan Mani said on Tuesday.

India cancelled series with Pakistan in 2014 and 2015, claiming political tensions. Pakistan was scheduled to stage both series, and claimed losses of nearly $70 million.

Since then, they have met in the 2015 Cricket World Cup and 2017 Champions Trophy. They are scheduled to meet this month in the Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Their legal case before the ICC dispute panel begins on October 1.

“If it was at an earlier stage, I could have sat with the BCCI at the table to sort this out, but the process has started and gone too far to be pulled back,” Mani said.

Mani was elected unopposed as chairman for a three-year term on Tuesday in Lahore.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, the patron of the PCB, nominated Mani as a member of the board of governors last month when Najam Sethi resigned as board chairman.

Sethi's resignation was expected as he had a poor relationship with Khan, who was elected prime minister in July general elections.

According to the PCB constitution, the patron can nominate two members on the board.

Mani has considerable cricket administration experience. He previously represented Pakistan on the International Cricket Council from 1996-2002, and served as ICC president from 2003-06.

Mani said he would like to tweak the PCB constitution to diminish the power of the chairman.

“Everywhere in the world it doesn't happen like this, so we have to tweak the constitution,” he said. “The whole system should run only for cricketers, and the importance of the chairman and board members will be toned down.”

He has raised a critical issue - if he can implement that in his tenure, it'll b great. Because, I don't think any Chairman would like to do this, which is basically chopping own wings -
"We have Chairman and Chief Executive as the same person which is the case in any other Board in the world"

This is like in parliamentary system both President & PM being same person. Ideally, Board Chairman shouldn't be involved in daily business operation, rather he (& his BoG) should be limited to policy issues. In my first post on expectations from Mani, this was number one expectation.

His idea regarding domestic system is excellent - copy paste AUS model isn't the best idea in PAK context. Eliminating Corporate might not be a great idea, rather they should find a system where Corporates can coexists. Otherwise his thought process is perfect - some how, they have to make sure that in a pyramid structure, top 125-150 players are playing against each others significant number of games.

He didn't play around the PSL, and accepted that he can't arrange it in PAK this year

Mani vows for increased transparency in PCB and PSL

Speaking in his first press conference after chairman elections, Mani said that he will first be putting himself up for scrutiny before publishing the accounts on the PCB website within a month for the public to see.

Taking the responsibility upon himself, Mani said that nothing will be hidden from the media and a fully functional media department will serve as a channel to access information.

“Whatever we do, will be transparent including all the decisions and all the financial matters. It will not only be available to the journalists and stakeholders but also to the general public as they are the biggest stakeholders of Pakistan cricket,” he said.

When questioned about monetary inconsistencies within the PSL, Mani added: “The PCB and the PSL will be subjected to an audit of their last 3 years. Corruption found at any stage of the audit will not be pardoned and sincere efforts will be made to return stolen money.”

Mani reassuring stated that the governing board consists of capable individuals whose experiences will be used to for the betterment of Pakistani cricket while he also hinted at a change in the constitution of the board.

“We will look to make changes to the constitution of the board as there is a conflict of interest,” he said. “The chairman and the chief executive of the board is the same person. A chairman has to monitor and ensure that the policies and strategies are being implemented by the chief executive.”

Mani also stressed on the importance of improved relations with India but he clearly stated that he won’t request Indian team to play with them due to the contradictory nature of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) policy in the past.

“We want to build relationship with India again. I had never said that Pakistan’s case against the BCCI in the ICC was on weak grounds. I had said that there are two ways to solve an issue. The first is to sit on a table and discuss it out. The second is to take a legal action,” he said. “But… I can tell you I will not request India to play with us. Their own policy has been contradictory, as they are always ready to play in multi-nation tournaments like the Asia Cup and the World Cup but renege on bilateral arrangements. So I never understood their positions and the basis of their policy. Even when I was at the ICC, they used to threaten to pull out from ICC tournaments.”

The PCB chairman also said that it is better interest of Pakistan cricket that entire Pakistan Super League (PSL) takes place in Pakistan as its going to help in brining international cricket to the country.

“Host the entire PSL in Pakistan as it will increase the brand’s value. We will have eight matches of the next PSL edition in Pakistan. It has already been committed to the franchises and we will continue to increase the number of matches to be held in Pakistan,” he said. “Small steps have been taken in the last three years that have helped in confidence building for international players. There will be some who will have reservations to play in Pakistan. But, our aim will be to bring cricket to Pakistan.”

PCB not to beg India to play bilateral cricket: Ehsan Mani

LAHORE: The newly elected chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board, Ehsan Mani, made it clear on Tuesday that the PCB would not beg or request India on playing bilateral cricket series.

"In my opinion, Indian Board has a contradictory stance and policy on playing cricket with Pakistan; they are ready to fulfill their ICC commitments and even ready to play Pakistan in the Asia Cup, but surprisingly when it matters playing bilateral cricket they have a different stance," he told the media at his maiden press conference after his election as the PCB chairman here on Tuesday at Gaddafi Stadium.

Mani sounded confidence by saying "I assure you that we will not be begging or requesting India to play bilateral cricket series. Pakistan has its own self-esteem and prestige and we will always uphold it no matter what are the circumstances."

To a question, he said that he is confident that the International Cricket Council will take a decision on merit on the case the PCB has filed for claiming damages on India for its refusal not to fulfill it bilateral series commitment with Pakistan.

The newly elected chairman said his specific mandate is to revamp the present cricket structure by bringing in changes to make it quality oriented.

"Right from grassroots level to school, club and region levels of cricket, we want to adopt a system which is 'Pakistan cricket system' instead of talking about much talked Australian cricket system, based on our own needs and requirements in the game to prepare back-up squads for different tiers of our national cricket," Mani said.

He said a task force will be set up to infuse a new life in domestic cricket structure by taking all the stakeholders on board and their useful suggestions will be implemented for the betterment and strengthening our domestic cricket.

"There are lot of challenges we will be facing as our grounds are not in good condition and our stadiums are in bad condition and with PSL matches and foreign teams visiting Pakistan we have to look into this aspect to better our own cricket facilities bringing them at par with the international standards," chairman PCB said.

Answering a question, he said he believed in good professional governance of the PCB as it will yield positive impact on the working of the Board and Pakistan cricket.

In this regard, he quoted the example of Australian, England and New Zealand cricket Boards where good governance has brought a positive impact on their cricket and established their respective team status in top notch teams of the world.

"My utmost effort will be to introduce a new system of good governance in the PCB for the overall development of game and to run the PCB on professional lines, making it an institution to sustain all sort of pressure and its performance and progress should not hamper in any circumstances," he said.

The PCB chairman said that corruption would not be tolerated at any level in the PCB nor in its allied affairs including PSL.

"All matters will be dealt in a transparent way and will be made public and we will not be hiding anything in PCB," he said adding "Auditors have raised a few objections during the audit of the PSL and we will be go through and will bring to task the responsible individuals, if any."

He said a lot of effort is still needed to bring back international cricket to Pakistan.

"We need to work on more confidence building measures to motivate the foreign governments to send their teams to Pakistan which is only possible when we work with close coordination with them on highlighting the positive measures we have taken for ensuring the safety and security of the foreign teams," he said adding "Besides we have to create close liaison with international cricket players association to take it into confidence on importance matters related to bring improvement on security issues in Pakistan."

He said resumption of international cricket is not an overnight process and defiantly it will take some time and with foreign players playing in Pakistan in PSL and then returning to their respective countries a positive and good massage will be spread regarding Pakistan portraying its soft image of a country to stage international cricket events.

Reasonable for the most part. I wonder if no one asked about Mickey Arthur.

Exactly. The only thing that I was looking forward to hearing his thoughts on.

Originally Posted by MenInG

It was interesting that he did hoops around the question where he was asked if people would be fired from PCB - he spoke about improving them etc

Think we will some heads roll soon.

Yup, he side-stepped them quite tactfully, which tbh gave me an uneasy feeling. I hope the selection committee and the management (Mickey and supporting staff) are not under the scanner. Any changes to the selection committee or the coaching staff, so close to the WC, would spell disaster for Pakistan. Our team is headed in the right direction and the Inzi/Mickey duo is working quite nicely.

Is the bio-mechanic's set up in Punjab (forgot the name of the university) under use or is it just consuming space??

It seems that apart from Shahryar Khan no one else is interested in using the bio mechanics lab. In the current season of QeA there are 3 or 4 off-spinners playing for their respective teams, if the lab was functioning their actions could easily have been monitored at the domestic level so that there is no possibility of embarrassment at the international level due to chucking.
But nothing is easy in PCB, and what amazes me the most is the fact that they already have the equipments and the cameras yet the lab isn't being used to check the action of the bowlers.

@Abdullah719 @MenInG is there any update about the bio-mechanics lab and has Ehsan Mani ever mentioned about that in his previous tenures?

Ehsan Mani will handle it well.I never doubt Khan is recognising the right person for the right job,do you>???

Not in Cricket for sure, but handling PCB isn't playing cricket actually. Mani might be an honest, capable guy, but he is almost 75 - not sure, how much left in his tank. He is entering the age, when people probably fit only for political leadership (because you don't need to work much there ), fixing PAK cricket as PCB Chairman is like 100 hours/week job.

I might be wrong, but I can give a personal experience. My dad was 1969 batch officer, and he was quite a brilliant one. Till his early 60s, I was often surprised with his professionalism, manners, time sense, memory, organization ... and all without any palm top, (and guy was effortlessly comfortable in black suit-tie for 365 days in Dhaka's humidity!!!). He had a diary and that's it - he could manage almost every thing from that & his mind. He was forced to retirement once after change of Govt., and we had a pre-scheduled dinner that night - he was cool, composed, smiling, taking care of the menu, bills ... absolute poker face, my mom as well (she definitely knew) ......... I came to know that from next mornings' newspaper!!!! But, last few years, I see him losing efficiency, his composure. Memory is fading, gets agitated too quickly, lost interest in most matters and most importantly he has lost seriousness from his life, takes things at it comes and be comfortable about time. Talks too much as well from his usual 1/2 liners, doesn't read much outside religious books, hardly any dress code/sense - that's natural aging. I never heard him specking more than 3-4 minutes over phone in past - now he spends half an hour to discuss some thing worth 5 minutes!!!

Appointing Ehsan Mani for his career in his 40s, 50s & early 60s, in his mid 70s might not be the best judgement, but I am expecting positive here, let's hope for the best.

Not in Cricket for sure, but handling PCB isn't playing cricket actually. Mani might be an honest, capable guy, but he is almost 75 - not sure, how much left in his tank. He is entering the age, when people probably fit only for political leadership (because you don't need to work much there ), fixing PAK cricket as PCB Chairman is like 100 hours/week job.

I might be wrong, but I can give a personal experience. My dad was 1969 batch officer, and he was quite a brilliant one. Till his early 60s, I was often surprised with his professionalism, manners, time sense, memory, organization ... and all without any palm top, (and guy was effortlessly comfortable in black suit-tie for 365 days in Dhaka's humidity!!!). He had a diary and that's it - he could manage almost every thing from that & his mind. He was forced to retirement once after change of Govt., and we had a pre-scheduled dinner that night - he was cool, composed, smiling, taking care of the menu, bills ... absolute poker face, my mom as well (she definitely knew) ......... I came to know that from next mornings' newspaper!!!! But, last few years, I see him losing efficiency, his composure. Memory is fading, gets agitated too quickly, lost interest in most matters and most importantly he has lost seriousness from his life, takes things at it comes and be comfortable about time. Talks too much as well from his usual 1/2 liners, doesn't read much outside religious books, hardly any dress code/sense - that's natural aging. I never heard him specking more than 3-4 minutes over phone in past - now he spends half an hour to discuss some thing worth 5 minutes!!!

Appointing Ehsan Mani for his career in his 40s, 50s & early 60s, in his mid 70s might not be the best judgement, but I am expecting positive here, let's hope for the best.

What in your view is a reasonable expectation from any incoming PCB chief in this era. I have some opinions, I am interested to read yours.

Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ehsan Mani while talking to media on Sunday, said that five matches of Pakistan Super League season 4 will be played in Karachi.

“We are focusing on PSL. Karachi will host five matches including the final and we will bring more international players to Pakistan in this season,” he told.

Mani said that foreign players and coaches take positive image of our country with them when they go back, they tell their people that there is no any such issue in Pakistan.

“When foreign coaches and other cricket officials come here they go back happily. So it would be a great help for us in changing the perception of foreign nations about Pakistan when we are able to bring in more people here,” he added.

Mani told media that PCB is the only board in the world that has no chief executive, the MD is responsible to look after the board operations on daily basis.

The fourth edition of PSL is expected to be a bigger and a better festival with names like AB De Villiers, Steve Smith, Colin Munro, Corey Anderson and other stars ready to showcase their skills.